07/28/2012

LONDON – Chelsea Aubry has waited an awfully long time for that three-point shot.

Aubry, the Kitchener native who is a 10-year veteran of Canada’s women’s basketball team, drained an arching jump shot a minute into the Canadians’game against Russia Saturday, on the opening day of women’s basketball at the Olympics.

Aubry’s three-pointer sparked a big Canadian run that ended with the Canucks up 30-24 at half-time. But the Russians exploded in the final quarter of the game, going on an 18-point rally that handed the Canadians a 58-53 loss.

“This was our game to win,” said a deflated Aubry after the game. “We could have beaten them, but we let it get away.”

The loss took some of the shine off Aubry’s big shot early in the game – the first point the Canadian team has scored since it was last at the Olympics in 2000.

“It was nice to get. We were a little back on our heels to start the game,” she said.

After Russia got off to a quick start, leading by eight points early in the first quarter, Canada’s defence seemed to shake off its nerves. Russia didn’t sink a single three point shot in the first half, while the Canadians responded with five of their own.

Key blocks in the first half by Guelph’s Natalie Achonwa in the Canadian end shut down the frustrated Russians, who looked lost at times to solve the Canadian defenders. Achonwa was a key play maker, getting physical under the net and recording three assists.

But the Russians started scoring when it counted, led by American-born Becky Hammon who scored 14, including eight down the stretch. Hammon, a six-time WNBA all-star, became a Russian naturalized citizen before the Beijing Games, helping Russia earn the bronze medal in 2008.

“We had it in our hands. Something we’re really good at, defence, we kind of lost track of a few players, and they punished us,” said Canada’s Kim Smith, who led the team with 20 points.

The loss stings because it showed holes in Canada’s strength – its defence – but the women will bounce back, the tall guard said.

“It’s going to hurt more,” Smith said. “But we’ll debrief, we’ll talk about this, and as soon as we get back to the village, this one is over. It’s a long tournament.”

Smith, Canada’s most offensive weapon, lived up to her billing. In Canada’s strong first half, she had three three-pointers as part of her 12-point effort before the break.

The Russians stayed calm late in the game and drew timely fouls from the Canadians when it really mattered, said head coach Allison McNeill.

“Russia showed their experience down the stretch,” she said.

No.11-ranked Canada came into the game as underdogs to the No. 3-ranked Russia. But they showed they can hold their own with the best in the world, she said.

“We know we’re a good team. The rest of the world might not know it yet,” Smith said “But we’re here and we’re ready to compete.”

Canada plays its second game at the Olympics on Monday against host Great Britain. That game goes at 3 p.m. ET. and will be broadcast on Sportsnet.

07/27/2012

LONDON — With appearances from the Queen, James Bond, Mr. Bean and Paul McCartney, London kicked off the 2012 Summer Olympics in an epic Opening Ceremonies that were unashamedly British.

In a sweeping 90-minute artistic show that featured actual livestock, soccer-playing peasants, pyrotechnics, massive sets and even bigger casts, London’s organizers set a wildly entertaining stage for the athletes’ march into the Olympic Stadium.

Wedged in between Cameroon and Cape Verde, the Canadians were led in by an enthusiastic flag bearer Simon Whitfield, the triathlete who spent two weeks training in the Guelph area in the lead-up to London.

Canada’s athletes, decked out in red jackets and beige pants, were cheered lustily by the stadium crowd, but this was Britain’s night.

The cinematic three-hour Opening Ceremonies, created by Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle, cost some $42 million — although that’s less than half the amount estimated to have been spent in China in 2008.

The show told the story of England’s evolution from its pastoral beginnings, through the Industrial Revolution, and into the modern era. It led the audience on a celebration of British pop culture, from the BBC and James Bond to the Beatles and David Bowie.

Watched by a live crowd of 65,000 and a TV audience thought to be more than a billion, it drew all eyes to an Olympic Village built in the run-down area of London’s East End.

Britain put seven years of work and $14 billion into these Games, a price tag some critics say was too high during one of the country’s worst recessions. But the overwhelming feeling among most Britons seems not to be weariness, but jubilation at hosting an estimated 11 million visitors expected over the next two weeks.

Massive crowds waited hours to get into the Olympic Village Friday, many waving flags and with faces painted in their country’s national colours. After all the hand-wringing, the construction headaches and the waiting, this seems like a city ready to party.

“London’s glory,” shouted the headline in one of the big tabloids here.

With the almost 7,000 athletes who will compete in the next two weeks are 277 Canadians, including about a dozen locals. Among them are two marathoners, Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis, two skinny Canadians trying to make history in an event long dominated by Africans.

The pair, two of the 110 entries for the Olympic marathon from 65 countries, have helped turn Guelph into a running hotbed, and both hope to finish in the top ten on Aug. 12.

In London for the Olympics, Canada’s Gov. Gen. David Johnson said he was pleased to see Canadians once again competing in what is likely the Olympics most grueling, endurance-testing event, all 42-plus kilometers of it.

“It’s wonderful to see the marathon again. It reminds us of the Games’ connection to ancient Greece,” he said.

England seems eager to celebrate, although these Games have not been without their bumps. More than a hundred athletes, although not all London-bound, have been caught by anti-doping drug tests in the lead up to the Olympics.

One medal hopeful, a Greek triple-jumper, has already been tossed from the Games for a racist comment posted on Twitter. And there was a last-minute scramble to bring in the British army to run security checkpoints when it was revealed the private security firm hired to do the job didn’t have enough people.

North Korea is still stinging, too, from an embarrassing mix-up earlier this week when Olympic organizers displayed the wrong flag – from rival South Korea – when introducing the country’s women’s soccer team.

Naysayers may complain that the Olympics are too commercial, and too expensive for the countries that go into massive debt to host them. But even the most casual sports fan can’t deny the national pride they inspire, causing us to jump on the bandwagon for two weeks every four years.

One of the most feel-good stories of these Games is that of the plucky Canadian women’s basketball team, back in the Olympics for the first time in 12 years. Anchored by two locals, Kitchener’s Chelsea Aubry and Guelph’s Natalie Achonwa, the team is an underdog in the so-called “pool of death,” facing heavyweights like Russia, Australia and Brazil.

“We’re certainly not expected to win a medal. But we’re certainly going to try,” said the team’s coach, Allison McNeill, who has coached the veteran Aubry since day one on the national team.

The team, still riding the euphoria of their dramatic Olympic berth July 1, is sticking with its defense-focused game plan as it tries to topple giants.

The team first test comes Saturday morning against a Russian squad that is among the biggest and allegedly toughest at the Olympics. When other teams were travelling the world playing exhibitions, the No. 3-ranked Russians stayed home, and played secretive games against men’s teams.

But McNeill says that’s not necessarily a sign the Russians have something up their sleeve. Canada’s women’s team used to do the same thing, often playing Kitchener’s Wild Hawks men’s team when no female competition could be found, she said.

That there’s a Canadian women’s basketball team and Canuck marathoners in the Olympics after a long absence speaks to what Canadian Olympic Committee president Marcel Abut called a “renaissance in Canadian sport.”

While China wonders aloud if it can top the 51 gold medals it claimed in the last Olympics, Canada’s performance at these Games would be “a tremendous success” if we were to finish in top 12 among medal counts, he said.

About half of the Canadians competing here are Olympic rookies, said chef de mission Mark Tewksbury. Among that group is Guelph’s Andrew Ford, Hilary Stellingwerff and Alex Genest and Cambridge’s Victoria Moors.

Those first-timers will inject new blood into an Olympic team that includes veterans like Cambridge’s Nate Brannen, the four-time Olympian Whitfield and equestrian’s Ian Miller, appearing in his tenth Games.

“With that kind of mix of experience and energy anything can happen,” Tewksbury said.

The women's basketball team will try to keep the momentum after their Olympic berth on July 1. File photo

LONDON – Here’s a look at the competition schedule for Waterloo Region and area Olympians this weekend.

Saturday, July 28:

Basketball

Canada’s women’s Olympic basketball team left the Opening Ceremonies early Friday night to rest up for Saturday morning’s clash with the Russians. That game, their first in London, will be shown at 6 a.m. ET on CTV.

Although the Canadians, who include Kitchener’s Chelsea Aubry and Guelph’s Natalie Achonwa, beat the tough Czech Republic in a friendly scrimmage on Thursday, they haven’t played a real game since July 1, when they earned their Olympic berth.

The Canadians aren’t expected to win any medals in these Games, but they’re hoping to upset some heavyweights, starting with the big, strong Russian squad, ranked No. 3 in the world.

Swimming

Stratford’s Julia Wilkinson will get one of her team events out of the way early, racing in the 4x100 freestyle relay on Saturday. She’ll compete in a round of heats that begin at 7:10 a.m. ET. If her team makes the finals, those races will be shown on CTV at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Sunday, July 29:

Gymnastics

Cambridge’s Victoria Moors, nursing two small tears in her back, will try to help lift the Canadian artistic gymnastics team past the qualifying round Sunday. Those events will be shown throughout the day on Sportsnet TV, starting at 6 a.m. ET.

Even if the team doesn’t advance out of this round, gymnasts can still make it into individual events next week.

Swimming

Julia Wilkinson will compete again Sunday, this time in her strong suit, the 100-metre backstroke races, with heats shown on CTV starting at 6 a.m. ET . The semi-finals will be broadcast on the same network later Sunday, starting at 2:30 p.m.

Wilkinson is expected to make the final in the 100-metre event and thinks a medal is within reach, so not making it past Sunday’s stage would be a deep disappointment.

07/26/2012

LONDON – Victoria Moors may be youngest Canadian on the Olympic team, and one of the smallest athletes walking around inside the Olympic Park.

But when it comes to gymnastics’ floor event, the 15-year-old Cambridge teen is Canada’s giant at these Games.

It’s fitting that Moors uses the song The Assassin’s Tango in her powerful floor routine, a highly difficult performance she’s been perfecting for three years in meets around the world. When she’s on, she kills the competition.

“Other gymnasts had (that song) before, and I just started using it and I put my own twist on it,” she said. “It’s just one of those songs that makes your heart drop.”

A choreographer customized the song for Moors, exaggerating its quiet and dramatic moments while her coach Elvira Saadi polished the performance. Since the teenager started doing the routine, she’s been pretty much undefeated in Canada in floor.

Her other strong suit is gymnastics’ vault, an event where gymnasts sprint down a runway, hurtle themselves onto a springboard and launch a vault into the air. Moors specializes in a challenging double Yurchenko twisting vault, a risk-prone manoeuvre that forced Canada’s Peng Peng Lee out of these Games.

Moors won in both events at the Olympic trials, and they’re a big part of the reason she comes into these Games ranked fourth overall in the world, according to the international gymnastics federation FIG.

The gymnast, who started in the sport at the Cambridge Kips club as a child, is thought to be good enough to make the podium in London. That is, as long as she’s healthy.

She revealed Thursday she’s nursing a bit of a back injury that is causing discomfort in her workouts. But the problem won’t affect her first appearance at the Olympics, she insisted.

“I have two tears in my back, but they’re small,” she said. “It’s nothing, it’s fine.”

On Thursday, Moors and the rest of the Canadian artistic gymnastics team practiced inside the massive North Greenwich Arena on the edge of the River Thames. Although the competition area was bathed in the pink and purple of the Games’ official colours, it was a familiar scene.

It was here back in January during the Olympic test event that Moors and her teammate Madeline Gardiner from Hespeler’s Dynamo Gymnastics helped Canada earn an Olympic berth. Gardiner, 17, was chosen as an alternate for the Olympics and will only compete if one of the starting five gymnasts are injured.

Moors admits it’s a little overwhelming being the youngest Canadian competitor in London, but says she’s trying to not be fazed by it.

“It’s weird, because people are older and I’m just 15 . . . But at the end of the day, I’m just another athlete here,” she said.

It’s also a little unusual being a tiny gymnast in the Athletes Village, surrounded by towering basketball players and hulking rowers, she admitted.

“Usually when I go to competitions, everyone is just a gymnast. But you look at somebody and they’re like eight feet tall, (you know) they’re not a gymnast,’” she said.

Moors will compete with the rest of the Canadian team on Sunday in gymnastics’ qualification round. If she makes it through, competition could continue until Aug. 7.

LONDON – The signs are everywhere for Julia Wilkinson, and they look good.

The Stratford swimmer, fresh from a workout in the cavernous Olympic pool Thursday, says she’s been surrounded by positive omens in the lead up to her races in London.

The swimmer isn’t superstitious, but she’s started taking a tally of the things that could suggest luck is on her side at these Summer Olympics.

For starters, she said, Mark Tewksbury is Canada’s chef de mission, and he won gold in the 100 metre backstroke – Wilkinson’s key race here – at the Barcelona Olympics.

On Thursday, when she walked out on the pool deck, they were playing Chariots of Fire, the podium song for these Games.

Then, after a swim team lunch last week, someone broke out in a rendition of The Final Countdown, the ‘80s rock song Wilkinson sings in her head in the final strokes of a race.

“There’s all these little things that are obviously completely random, but they seem like they’re good. I like to write them down and hope that means things are going my way,” she said.

Oh, and she finally found a local manicurist willing to paint her fingernails red, white and gold, so that ritual is taking care of, too. There was a minor panic at the swim team’s pre-Games camp in Italy, when no one could be found to do the job.

“We had nowhere to go in Italy, so I was kind of freaking out,” Wilkinson said. “So I Googled where to go here, and I found a place in the mall. The girl thought I was hilarious. She didn’t really understand.”

Wilkinson is swimming in four events in London: the 100-metre backstroke, 100-metre freestyle, the 400-metre medley relay and the 400-metre freestyle relay. That’s a more focused approach from her hectic schedule in Beijing, where she swam 11 races in six different events.

Just days away from her first race, the feeling in London is markedly different than it was at her last Olympics, she said. Her nerves are under control this time, and she’s planning to keep herself far more even-keeled.

“In Beijing, I remember being unbelievably happy and horrendously nervous. I remember absolutely balling my eyes out after my semi-final in the 100 backstroke. It was an emotional rollercoaster,” she said.

Still, the swimmer said she’s feeling the weight of more expectations this time around. That’s added some stress, but also boosted her confidence – she’s already said she thinks a gold in the 100-metre backstroke is within reach.

“It’s way different from four years ago. In Beijing, I was walking around going, ‘Oh, I’m so lucky to be here.’ Now I feel lucky to be here, but I also deserve to be here. I earned my way and I’m here to do business,” she said.

“I’m not here to collect pins of take pictures of celebrities. I’m here to get a job done.”

She’s trying to rest her legs as much as possible before competition starts. To do that, she’ll be in her room at the Athletes Village, re-watching the Alien movie sequels, and catching up with her “hero” Sigourney Weaver.

Wilkinson’s first race will be Saturday, in the 400-metre freestyle relay.

Kitchener's Chelsea Aubry and the Canadians play a friendly vs. the Czechs Thursday. Record photo

LONDON — Canadian basketball players haven’t been here enough to get jaded. Not by a long shot.

So when Canada’s women’s basketball team walked into the brand-spanking new Olympic basketball venue Wednesday, there was a collective gasp. And then raving.

“The guy opens the door and they’ll all go ‘laaaaaaah!’” said head coach Allison MacNeil, imitating the sound of a heavenly choir. “It was just spontaneous. No one planned it, they just kind of sang out.”

The women, who spent an hour practicing on the official court, have a right to celebrate moments like that. The last time Canadian women qualified to play basketball in the Olympics was 12 years ago.

“A lot of them have been striving toward this for a long time,” the coach said.

Count among them Kitchener’s Chelsea Aubry, who at 28 is one of the longest-serving players on the national team. With retirement looming, she’s making sure to soak up the experience in London.

That includes lingering in the shrink-wrapped basketball arena that will be boxed up like a giant Leggo set and shipped off to Rio de Janeiro when these Games are done.

The women’s team was among the first athletes to arrive at the campus-style Athletes Village. They quickly got comfortable, found the bocce ball and Frisbee and started enjoying themselves.

Canadian flags were hung from the balconies to make them feel at home.

“We were pretty spoiled the first few days,” said forward Natalie Achonwa, the Guelph native who is the youngest player on the team.

The women are split among two eight-person townhomes, with all the creature comforts — from a massage space to a meditation room — all on offer, free of charge.

“Pretty much anything you want, it’s there for you,” Aubrey said. “It’s like a little city.”

On Thursday, they play their only tune-up before the Olympics, an exhibition match against the Czech Republic. The women haven’t played a game since July 1, when they earned their Olympic berth in a win over Japan.

“We just want to play, to get that feeling,” said Aubry, who walked off the practice court barefoot after another hard workout.

Later in the day, the basketball team took part in a theatrical welcome ceremony for Canadian athletes at the Athletes Village, where the Canadian flag was raised and anthem played. They also met Canadian Governor General David Johnson, who took a tour of the village.

He praised the team for “carrying the Canadian colours very well,” and noted that they’re part of the reason women account for 56 per cent of Canada’s athletes at these Games.

Johnson, the former University of Waterloo president, said he was impressed by their dramatic route to an Olympic berth, earned back on Canada Day.

“What a thrilling set of victories to get them here,” he said. “They’re ready and pretty excited.”

The basketball team, like all elite athletes, inspires the next generation of players back home, Johnson said.

“It has a very inspiring effect at every of sport in the country, including just having fun playing. It lifts the whole nation,” he said.

Aubry, meanwhile, won’t do anything too special to get ready for these Games, except maybe busting out some pre-game Bon Jovi, a ritual from a past tournament. Achonwa, meanwhile, will stick to her ritual of warming up in the same spot on the court.

The team’s first game in the six-team Olympic round-robin pool goes Saturday morning against the Russians. They’ll play Great Britain, France, Australia and Brazil over the following eight-day span.

The Canadians may be green when it comes to the Olympics — only one player, Teresa Gabriel, has been to the Games before — but they don’t feel out of place, the coach said.

“We don’t feel like beginners here,” MacNeill said. “This is just a big competition. These are world class athletes, and so are we. We belong, because we’ve earned it.”

Many people wonder what kind of cool things go on inside the Athletes Village at the Olympics. With all those fit, young people from around the world, it must be the greatest place on earth, right?

Apparently, this is what goes on: watch the guy in the blue shirt and big hair come out of the lower left corner of the screen. He's creating dance moves that have never been seen before in public. I'm not sure if he was part of the show or snuck in past security.

This video is at the tail end of the team welcome ceremony for athletes from Canada, Monaco, Morrocco, Serbia and Portugal. It was a dramatic spectacle, put on by the Natioanl Youth Theatre of Great Britain, and featured acrobatic men in suspenders, a women inside a weird golden flying contraption and one rapping court jester.

Oh, and then the actors led all the athletes in a rousing version of Queen's "We Are the Champions."

07/25/2012

Nike may be the sponsor of the Canadian track team's new uniforms, but Olympic staff are forbidden still from wearing the company's shoes. Canadian Press photo.

Corporate sponsors pay big money for exclusive rights to the the Olympics. And they don't want any competitors' logos messing up the scenery.

All Olympic staff in London are under strict orders to wear their Games-issued uniforms at all times. Wear the wrong logo, and you could be tossed. No joke.

James Ryan, a Vancouverite who works in the media centre in the Olympic Village, found that out the hard way. He was told he'd be escorted off the premises if he didn't change out of a pair of Nikes on his feet. Immediately.

Addidas, it turns out, wanted him to wear the same grey and white sneakers as everybody else. That's why they paid $62 million for their Olympic sponsorship.

The tight rules around logos apply to athletes, too. Besides having their Twitter comments monitored by Olympic officials to make sure they don't mention any non-sponsor brands, athletes are also under strict orders not to wear unapproved logos when they make public apperances at the Games, such as arriving at the airport.

That made for some tough packing for Cambridge gymnast Victoria Moors, according to her mother Lisa Rutledge.

"She's a 15-year-old girl. Everything she owns has a logo on it," she said. "They said, if you have to wear pants, hide the logo."

Nike, meanwhile, is fighting a U.K. court decision banning tweets from Nike athletes using the hashtag, #makeitcount. That campaign was part of the company's plan to market its sponsors athletes at the games, despite the wishes of Adidas, the official footwear provider of the London Games.

LONDON – There are likely few people in all of rainy England hoping for clear skies on July 28 more than Alex Bulmer.

When you’re planning a giant outdoor spectacle that includes a cast of hundreds, dozens of dancers, jaw-dropping pyrotechnics, circus acts and the involvement of the Royal British Navy, you really, really need the rain to hold off.

This Saturday, the Kitchener-born, Puslinch-raised writer will have a live audience of tens of thousands for one of her most challenging shows yet – Breathe, an ambitious performance that will be the opening ceremonies for the Olympic sailing events off Weymouth Beach.

That is, as long as England’s wettest summer in a hundred years doesn’t wash the whole thing out.

“It’s been like Noah’s Ark. It’s unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Bulmer said between squawks from seagulls over the phone in the beachside town on England’s south coast. “I think if rains, we don’t do the show.”

There’s plenty on the line. Bulmer, who moved to England about six years ago, has spent more than a year on this production. She wrote the script for the show, and recently travelled to Brazil to work with dancers who will be a key part of the choreography.

It’s an envelope-pushing performance, using blind and otherwise disabled actors, two giant stages, massive video screens, trapeze acts, 275 torch bearers and naval ships. The challenge for the writer was to take what started as three separate shows and make them one cohesive spectacle.

“The decision was made to put all the shows into one, which was a nightmare. I was asked to take these elements of a story and put them together into something that made sense,” she said.

“In this case, you not only have to think as a writer, but almost as a puzzle maker.”

With the Olympics just a few days away, she’s confident she can pull it off.

Bulmer has been performing and creating shows pretty much since she could walk. As early as three, she loved to put on costumes and force her family to sit through yet another play starring herself as the director, producer and lead actor.

“I tortured my family. I made them sit and watch me. Every week, I had a new play whether they liked it or not,” she said, laughing.

Bulmer long ago graduated from childhood plays to writing for BBC Radio, the CBC, and various film and theatre companies in Canada and the U.K.

After starting her writing career while still at Centennial Collegiate high school in Guelph — one of her favourite stories was on Guelph Olympian Victor Davis — she went on Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke.

That’s where concerns about her failing vision grew. Bulmer, who is legally blind, was nearly falling off the stage during theatre productions, according to her mother.

But being blind allows her to visualize things in ways others can’t. To produce Breathe, Bulmer has two aides who work with her, who describe choreography and physically take her through the other movements of the show as they’re being rehearsed.

Those “audio-describers” are the link between what she’s written, the dancers on stage, and the timing of the music, she said.

“She sees with her ears. What she sees in her imagination, just from hearing, is remarkable,” said her mother, Barbara Bulmer.

Blindness isn’t something that gets in the way of her work.

But the weather, that’s another thing. Bulmer just hopes she can have clear skies on the night she unveils the biggest show she’s ever done. For now, it looks like England’s notoriously wet forecasts will cooperate

07/24/2012

Moroccan runner Mariem Alaoui Selsouli, once a favourite for Olympic gold, has been banned for doping. She runs in Hilary Stellingwerff's 1,500-metre event.

Just days before the Opening Ceremonies in London, World Anti-Doping Agency President John Fahey says more than 100 athletes have been kept out of the Games because of doping.

At least 107 athletes had drawn doping bans by mid-June, Fahey said, meaning they're banned from the Games. Not all would have neccesarily qualified to compete in London.

"I am pleased to say that they are not with us," he said.

Guelph's Dr. Margo Mountjoy is a key part of the Olympics' anti-doping efforts. She’ll be supervising the team that will administer drug tests throughout the Games — a massive operation that will police the roughly 11,000 athletes here.

With testing more stringent than ever, athletes who dope should know that "their chances of avoiding detection are the smallest they have ever been," Fahey said.

Suspected cheaters were targetted as part of a pre-Olympic campaign that shared 'intelligence' between the World Anti-Doping Agency, sports federations and London organizers.

Countdown to the 2012 London Olympics

Follow this blog to keep on top of Waterloo Region and Guelph's elite athletes competing for the chance to represent Canada at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Reporter Greg Mercer will bring you in-depth profiles on this special group, plus updates on their training and qualifying events.
If you have suggestions for local Olympic stories, contact Greg at gmercer@therecord.com